An environmental history of the salmon management philosophies of the North Pacific : Japan, Russia, Canada, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest United States

Salmon management philosophies of the five salmon jurisdictions of the North Pacific (Japan, Russia, Canada, Alaska and the American Northwest) are examined in a historical and geographic context. The first objective is to provide a synthesis of salmon management experience across the North Pacific, to serve as a context for the professionals and private citizens involved in day-to-day salmon management. The second objective is to elucidate the relative role of geography versus deliberate management action in shaping contemporary salmon management philosophies, on the basis of salmon management experience. Harvest trends, species composition, regulatory actions, property rights, technological innovation, climate variability, habitat alteration, markets, international agreements, and science are reviewed for each jurisdiction over time. The source material is drawn from a variety of scholarly and popular published sources, in Russian and English. The inferred salmon management philosophies of the five jurisdictions vary in their emphasis on three primary salmon management objectives: maximizing biomass production, preserving salmon harvest communities, and conserving salmonid genetic and life history diversity. All initially heavily emphasized biomass production, except for Canada. Only Japan, and Alaska after statehood, have given moderate or great emphasis to community preservation. Among the five jurisdictions, the only two to emphasize biodiversity conservation are the Pacific Northwest United States and British Columbia, Canada. The initial species endowment of each jurisdiction, the landscape, climate variability and the cultural heritage of the dominant salmon harvesters are more critical at shaping salmon management philosophies than are incremental regulatory decisions over time. For instance, Japan's salmon ranching philosophy accrued from the availability of species without freshwater life history stages and the need to support a large human population. Favorable climate conditions in the 1970s facilitated the Japanese emphasis on hatchery chums and an engineering approach to contend with flooding and the demand for energy and water supplies. Change in salmon management philosophies, such as the shift to an emphasis on biodiversity conservation in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, occurs when the legal harvest rights of salmon harvester subgroups changes during a period of harvest decline. In the case of the latter two jurisdictions, the increased legal rights of native peoples have catalyzed a shift from an emphasis on biomass production to biodiversity conservation

Global Assessment of Extinction Risk to Populations of Sockeye Salmon Oncorhynchus nerka

BACKGROUND: Concern about the decline of wild salmon has attracted the attention of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN applies quantitative criteria to assess risk of extinction and publishes its results on the Red List of Threatened Species. However, the focus is on the species level and thus may fail to show the risk to populations. The IUCN has adapted their criteria to apply to populations but there exist few examples of this type of assessment. We assessed the status of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka as a model for application of the IUCN population-level assessments and to provide the first global assessment of the status of an anadromous Pacific salmon. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found from demographic data that the sockeye salmon species is not presently at risk of extinction. We identified 98 independent populations with varying levels of risk within the species' range. Of these, 5 (5%) are already extinct. We analyzed the risk for 62 out of 93 extant populations (67%) and found that 17 of these (27%) are at risk of extinction. The greatest number and concentration of extinct and threatened populations is in the southern part of the North American range, primarily due to overfishing, freshwater habitat loss, dams, hatcheries, and changing ocean conditions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Although sockeye salmon are not at risk at the species-level, about one-third of the populations that we analyzed are at risk or already extinct. Without an understanding of risk to biodiversity at the level of populations, the biodiversity loss in salmon would be greatly underrepresented on the Red List. We urge government, conservation organizations, scientists and the public to recognize this limitation of the Red List. We also urge recognition that about one-third of sockeye salmon global population diversity is at risk of extinction or already extinct

Comparative Resilience in Five North Pacific Regional Salmon Fisheries

Over the past century, regional fisheries for Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) have been managed primarily for their provisioning function, not for ecological support and cultural significance. We examine the resilience of the regional salmon fisheries of Japan, the Russian Far East, Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington-Oregon-California (WOC) in terms of their provisioning function. Using the three dimensions of the adaptive cycle - capital, connectedness, and resilience - we infer the resilience of the five fisheries based on a qualitative assessment of capital accumulation and connectedness at the regional scale. In our assessment, we evaluate natural capital and connectedness and constructed capital and connectedness. The Russian Far East fishery is the most resilient, followed by Alaska, British Columbia, Japan, and WOC. Adaptive capacity in the fisheries is contingent upon high levels of natural capital and connectedness and moderate levels of constructed capital and connectedness. Cross-scale interactions and global market demand are significant factors in reduced resilience. Greater attention to ecological functioning and cultural signification has the potential to increase resilience in Pacific salmon ecosystems

Range-wide map of assessed sockeye salmon and their IUCN status.

<p>Numbers displayed on map correspond to identification numbers for sockeye populations listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s001" target="_blank">Tables S1</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s002" target="_blank">S2</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s003" target="_blank">S3</a>.</p

IUCN Red List criteria applied in the study.

a<p>Number of sockeye juvenile nursery lakes and distinct spawning regions within a population.</p><p>Quantitative criteria used in the study to determine extinction risk. CR = Critically Endangered, EN = Endangered, VU = Vulnerable.</p

Southeastern range map of assessed sockeye salmon and their IUCN status.

<p>Numbers displayed on map correspond to identification numbers for sockeye populations listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s001" target="_blank">Tables S1</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s002" target="_blank">S2</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s003" target="_blank">S3</a>.</p

Escapement monitoring sites for sockeye salmon.

<p>Escapement monitoring sites for sockeye salmon throughout their natural range in the North Pacific. These sites (N = 279) yielded escapement records spanning at least three generations, or 12 years. Numbers displayed on map correspond to identification numbers for monitoring sites in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s001" target="_blank">Tables S1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0034065#pone.0034065.s002" target="_blank">S2</a>.</p

Genetic differentiation among spawning sites of sockeye salmon.

<p>Spawning ground sites sampled for two separate microsatellite DNA baselines for sockeye salmon. The presence of significant barriers to gene flow between sites are displayed by red lines (line width scaled to genetic differerentiation). See text for further explanation.</p